I Went Out Of Business

As you could probably see, I haven't posted anything for five years.  Well, back in September of 2011, I went out of business.  New technology advances coupled with the new unit designs, which made the units more labor intensive and parts were more expensive, ended up in making the newer units no longer economically repairable.  Less and less of the older units were coming in for repair and then the O'conomy hit hard and I no longer had much business and didn't make enough money during the summer to carry me thru the winter, so I was force to shut the doors.  There were literally people coming in, hoping that I might be able to fix their unit for around 20 bucks, but most of them needed more than double of that in parts alone, not including labor.  That was all the money they had to spend to fix it and had to leave without getting a repair.  They were forced to either leave their vehicle broke down, or try to find a salvage unit on the cheap.

A couple of years later, I set up a home shop and started doing repairs again part time, but it probably only makes enough money to pay my electric bill for the year and a few extra bucks.  Due to the O'conomy, I haven't had a job since I closed shop, nor can I get health care either.  This coming election we have a choice between continuing on the path of destruction and making America a third world country, or making a real change in Washington and put the country back on a path to prosperity.  We need a business man running the country, not a politician.  Politicians have done nothing but take problems that are facing the nation, made them worse, and then their solution is far worse than the original problem was in the first place.         

Alternators, Models & Design, Part 5, Delco 15 & 17 SI

The Delco models 15SI and 17SI are a larger version of the 10 and 12SI alternators.  Other than the part number, it is almost impossible to distinguish between the two, as practically all the parts are interchangeable between the two.  Pictured below is both models.  The 17SI is on the left and the 15SI on the right. 

You may notice some minor differences in the housings but both models could have any of the housings pictured.  Though they share the same basic design with the 10SI most of the parts will not interchange with it though.  The picture below shows how much larger the 15 and 17SI alternator is compared to the 10SI.

The 15 and 17SI units do not have the housing variations that the 10SI smaller units do, but they do have the terminal variations.  Testing this unit follows the same procedures as the 10 & 12SI units.  All terminals match the smaller units with the 'BAT' or battery terminal on the threaded post, the number one or spade terminal on the left is the indicator light and/or excitation terminal, and the number two spade terminal is battery sense.  The following paragraph for testing, is from the Delco 10SI post on 1/27/11.  For more detail information, refer to that older post.

Of course using a voltmeter across the battery terminals is the best way to check if it's working, reading a fully charged battery at 12.5 volts and then after starting the vehicle, it should read a volt higher.  Getting the alternator checked by a qualified technician is the best way to determine if it is good or not.  If the alternator is not charging, with the engine running, one test you can perform is to take a small screwdriver and poke it into the small 'D' shaped hole in the back of the unit (pictured illustration on the 10SI post) to bypass the regulator, which will put the alternator into full charge.  The grounding tab is about 3/4 of an inch from the back surface of the unit.  Don't poke it in too far or you can hit the spinning rotor, damaging the unit!  You do have at least an inch of space before hitting other components.  While grounding that tab, if the alternator charges, then the internal regulator is bad and will need replaced!

Some People Shouldn't Work On Their Cars!

A guy came in the shop this week and after talking to him for 20 minutes, it was easy to tell that he should never go under the hood of a car!  It was obvious from his approach to his problems that all he's going to do is cause more damage to the vehicle and his pocketbook!

The vehicle in question was a late 90's Dodge product and he brought me the alternator to check to see if it worked.  The first clue of his ignorance was the fact that he cut the wires to the harness instead of removing a couple of nuts off the back of the unit and removing the harness.  Now when he patches it back, there will be another connection (probably a weak one to boot) and another potential problem in the future.  I tested the alternator and told him it was fine and that's when he told me what happened.

Apparently he was listening to the radio on the vehicle with the engine shut off and ran the battery down.  Now radios don't draw that much current so I asked him if he had turned the key to the 'accessory' position.  He said no because the radio wouldn't work in that position, so he turned the key to 'on'.  Maybe there are more people out there than I think there are, that don't know that when you turn the key to the 'on' position, you energize the whole electrical system, the vehicles computer, the ignition system and the fuel pump.  All this together will put quite a drain on a battery and run it completely down in a matter of a couple of hours, which in this case, it did as the radio faded out on him and the car was dead.

Well apparently he didn't know that and decided to get a jump start to get it going, but the idiot who jumped him (probably was as smart as he was, duh) hooked the cables up backwards.  Oh Crap!  Don't you people know just how much damage you can do to the electrical system on a vehicle by such a mistake?  Especially 2000 and later vehicles!  Well I'm not sure what all took place, but they did get the vehicle started.  The problem was, it wouldn't keep running when they pulled the jumper cables off.  To make matters worse, he told me that the gauges were flashing all over the place and nothing was functioning right.

Here's where 'old school' failed him, since he pulled the cables and the engine died, he automatically assumed that it's the alternator.  You've got a dead battery in the vehicle, that had been run down by leaving the key on with the engine off and you assume it's the alternator?  I guess the key word here is 'assume', you know, when you ass-u-me you make an ASS out of U and ME!  How in hell is the alternator going to work when the battery is dead?  It needs battery voltage to energize and his hooking up the cables backwards probably ruined the regulator, which controls the alternator and unfortunately is also located in this vehicles computer and not the alternator.

The first thing he should have done was get the battery charged and tested, or replaced it with a new one.  That may have solved all of his problems, if there wasn't any damage to the vehicles other electrical components.  It is possible that if the battery was run all the way down, by switching the cables on the jumping vehicle, he could have reversed the polarity in the battery which would change the batteries posts designations from positive to negative and vice-versa!  I wonder what damage they caused to the jumping vehicle too?  If they did reverse the polarity, that would also explain why the car died after pulling the cables.

I'm glad I'm not him, because all this ignorance could cost him upwards of $2,000 to properly repair it and get it back on the road!  He'll be lucky as hell if just replacing the battery fixes everything!  Warning, if you didn't understand any of this post, then stay out from under the hood of your car.  You'll probably damage expensive components if you try working on it yourself!

Either Feast or Famine!

Since last July, My business has been way off, which has kept me busy only half days.  But the two recent heavy snow storms, which dropped record snows in this part of the country, sank a bunch of the boat docks around the lake here.  Now there are hundreds of boats that went under water, all with starters and alternators that will need repaired.  Two of the marina's have already brought me quite a bit of work and a lot are waiting the insurance companies to come out and assess the damages and issue checks.  I heard one estimate of around 80 million dollars worth of damage around the lake.

So how does that affect me?  I now have loads of work and presently don't see the end of it for some time.  Though water getting inside of starters and alternators does not destroy these units and they will a lot of times function after their drained and dried out, or in some cases operate while still wet, they will eventually fail if not taken apart and properly cleaned up.  I much rather get a unit in immediately after it gets sunk, than to get it after it has set for months, as it can be easily disassembled and cleaned up.  Those units that come in after they have set for a while will be all rusted up and corroded and take much longer and be more expensive to repair.

Most alternators only need to be disassembled cleaned up and dried out and the bearings replaced.  Water usually doesn't affect the other components as long as there is not excessive rust or corrosion.

With starters though, they usually need the solenoids, drives and bushings or bearings replaced.  I can usually re-use the brushes if they are not worn down very bad.  I have to replace the solenoids because most of today's solenoids are rolled and sealed and they can not be taken apart and dried out like the older solenoids could.  I have to replace most of the drives as water gets into the roller clutches and will rust them up causing them to fail.  Most small shop rebuilders don't have the equipment to open these drives up and rebuild them.

Bottom line is if you have a unit that gets wet or goes under water, the quicker you can get it to me, the easier and cheaper it will be to repair!

Poor Quality, Part 5, Delco 22SI Truck Alternator

Last week a customer came in, in trouble as he was broke down on the road and just passing through.  He had this 130 Amp Delco alternator that had quit charging and he tried to take it apart to see if he could fix it, but couldn't get it together correctly and broke one of the brushes.

Generally, I would fault him for taking it apart without knowing much about them and causing damage, but there were several other issues with this unit that were not his fault!  This was a rebuild that he bought at a parts store in Chicago and he only got a thousand miles out of it before it failed.  The two major issues were that the ground screws that held the rectifier in were stripped when installed, causing the rectifier to get loose and arcing to the ground, blowing a couple of the diodes in it.  The other issue was that the rebuilder installed the wrong brush holder assembly causing miss-alignment of the brushes with the rotor.  The brush holder mounting bosses inside differ from the Delco 21SI alternator which looks almost identical on the outside.

I ended up putting a couple of heli-coils in the bolt holes, replaced the rectifier and put the correct brush holder in the unit to get him back on the road.  This was a needless repair and would have not been necessary if only the rebuilder had done his job right!  The stress of this repair was compounded by the fact that he stood right there and that I had trouble with the unit having to assemble and take it apart several times before I finally got it fixed!  If I had any idea who the original rebuilder was I would post his name and company here and warn everyone to stay away from him!!!

Alternators, Models & Design, Part 4, Delco CS130

The Delco CS130 Alternator was the first of the Delco units that started to be designed for the engine compartment instead of being universal.  It came out in the late 1980's about when the cars went from a squared look to a more rounded aero-dynamic look.  They generally came in three amp ranges, 85, 100 and 105 amps, with the 100 and 105 amp units the most common.

Most all the units used the serpentine multi-groove drive belts, but can use the standard 'V' belt also.  After these alternators had been out in the field for a few years, they came out with heavier bearing units, as the bearings in the standard units were failing in rougher service.  There were several different drive end (front) housings used on this unit depending on the application, which made it quite difficult to substitute with a salvage unit.  The picture below is just a few examples.  Notice the two housings in the lower row in the center and on the right have heavier bearing bosses as compared to the other housings.

There were also a couple of differences in the bearing hole in the back housing as one used a corrigated metal strip to support the bearing while the other used a black plastic ring.  The plastic ring housing was the later version and it supported a heavier wider rear bearing and was used whether it had a heavy front bearing or not!

Internally, almost all the parts are interchangeable, that is they will fit most all the units, 'BUT' may not be correct or even function in the application.  For this reason, you must find the correct unit for the correct make, model and engine size.

The biggest difference is in the regulators.  Most of the regulators all look identical, but their internal circuitry were all different.  They all had the same four terminal plug in set, with one large terminal and three small terminals.  Besides other circuitry differences, the two main terminal designations were P-L-I-S which was an ignition controlled unit and P-L-F-S which was a computer controlled unit.  More recently the aftermarket has come out with a 'one wire' regulator for these units, which now makes this unit more versatile.

The main reason that about 90% of these units failed was the rectifier.  That component took and produced most of the heat in the unit and the OE diodes would only last so many cycles before they gave up.  Fortunately aftermarket heavy duty rectifiers were produced in the early 2000's, that made these units more reliable.  In fact, these rectifiers are so reliable, that I have never had a failure on any of them that I have installed, NEVER!

Can I Boost My Alternator To A Higher Output?

Like today, I occasionally get this question, as some people need more output due to extra loads put on the alternator by adding other electrical equipment to a vehicle that did not come factory installed.

This is no simple question to answer, as too many variables enter the equation.  First I'll address what happens to the unit by ramping it up.  Most alternators are pre-designed to put out the maximum amps for their size, though some of them can vary and accept a small increase in output.  Also, alternators are only able to maintain constant output at 75% of their rated capacity, which means it you have a 100 amp unit, you can only expect to use 75 amps 100% of the time.  Taxing the unit for more will result in premature failure!

The real problem lies in the ability for the unit to put out a charge, in all the engine speed ranges or RPM"s.  If you have an OE 100 amp alternator, that was installed in a vehicle it was designed for, it will function properly at engine speeds from let's say 400 RPM's at idle to 3,500 RPM's top engine speed.  Now let's say you need to raise the output from 100 amps to 160 amps output out of the same unit, and for this purpose, let's say the parts are available to do such a boost.  What happens is, by putting the heaver windings to increase the output, you will also move the RPM range.  Since the unit wasn't pre-designed to run with these heavy components, you now have changed the range, to where it may only charge from let's say, 1,000 RPM's to 4,000 RPM's, so at idle speeds, it will drop out and no longer charge.  You will also have to run the engine faster to get the output you want.

For most applications, parts are not available to rebuilders to boost most units beyond factory specs.  Each unit is unique to the application and very few or none of the parts on these units are interchangeable anymore.  There are companies that build OE style units into high amp output units, usually for stereo amplifier applications, but these units are usually short lived as most consumers of these units, tax them to their limits.  For this reason, I personally do not market or sell these units, nor will I stand behind them either.

An exception to this, is in older units that came in a large amp range.  Take the Delco 10SI for example.  It was produced by Delco in the amp ranges from 37 to 63 amps and has been boosted to about 80 amps without any problems either.  So let's say you have a 45 amp unit and want to boost it to 72 amps, the parts are available to do the job and you won't be pushing the design limits.  It will still function properly in all the RPM ranges!

One other minor problem worth mentioning is if you increase the output, you will also tax the engine horsepower a little bit, which may decrease the gas mileage some too.  Is the trade-off worth it?

Bottom line is if you need a large boost in amp output, you need to use a larger alternator that is designed for that output.  If you need a large output alternator, but only have room for a small unit, then don't expect the unit to function at idle speeds and don't expect it to have a very long life if you tax it close to it's limit!